Essay Example: Portuguese Voyages-Columbus’ Motives

Essay Example: Portuguese Voyages-Columbus’ Motives 

Early exploration of new places, particularly islands, as led by the Europeans, was an attempt to find the spice islands.  The spice islands were believed to be extremely valuable and had lots of opportunities of wealth to anyone that could reach it and utilize its resources.  Christopher Columbus, a European sailor who originally was from Italy, had an idea of how to reach these islands.  At that time, it was a race to see who in Europe could reach the spice islands first.  Columbus had his own ideas, rooted in his calculations.  He believed he could reach Japan in 3000 miles, and go through the trade winds.

To chase his idea, Columbus ventured to different places to ask for funding and materials.  He first went to Portugal and got turned down.  He then went to a town in Spain, where he also got turned down.  This was because, at the time, Spain was trying to conquer a kingdom.  After they successfully took hold of the said kingdom, they have more financial abilities.  The members of authority in this town decided that they would sponsor Columbus to take this journey as he had planned.  He was given three ships.  As well as a group of sailors, two of these ships were relatively small.   This would later have negative connotations.  Per Columbus’ conditions, if he succeeded, he was to be given the title of “Admiral of the Sea” as well as the right to govern any new land discovered.  Columbus’ requests were accepted, based on the idea that if he didn’t become a victim of the sea, his success would bring extreme wealth to the area.

Columbus set sail in August 1492 and sailed down to the Canary Islands of Morocco to pick up the trade winds.  Columbus knew he had a long journey ahead of him, but he was confident in his math.  After a few weeks with no sighting of the land, the sailors became very upset and on the verge of rebelling.  Columbus then offered a reward to the first sailor to see land.  And soon after, on October 11th, Columbus believed he saw a fire at night.  This reassured him and just made him even more sure of his previous calculations.  On October 12th, at dawn, the lookout sees land.  Columbus recorded the beach they landed at as being low and sandy.

Even though they had reached land, they had not reached Japan as Columbus had predicted.  Columbus and his crew had actually landed on a beach in the Bahamas.  However, this was nonetheless an important discovery.  Columbus soon marked the land with the flag of Spain.  But Columbus and his crew were not the only people on the island; they met other people who already had settled there.  These people were known as the Taino people.  They dressed in minimal clothing and had brown skin and black hair.  Columbus associated this with ideas of Asian descendants, so he still believed he was in Asia.  Columbus called these people “Los Indios” or the Indians.

The longer he was on the island, the more apparent it became that the Taino people were less advanced in terms of weaponry and firepower.  They did not have metal tools, so Columbus saw this as having a big advantage over them.  He started to talk about conversion and conquering the island.  Columbus was making mental notes of the strength of these newfound people and how he could overpower them.

Columbus’ voyage home was long and difficult. His largest ship sunk, forcing him to leave around 35 crewmates behind on the beaches.  Also, on his way back, he ran into a hurricane, the first one he had ever seen or known about.

When Columbus returned to Spain, everyone was extremely surprised and joyous.  The monarchs organized a new trip with many more people and ships, and they spread the word of his successful return.  The second expedition took place in 1493.  Columbus and the crew brought with them items to colonize the new land he’d discovered, such as cows, horses, guns, and more.  But new places and civilizations bring more problems to work out, mainly around diseases that the Europeans had never seen before.  However, as of that moment, Columbus had successfully started the colonization of the new land.